THE SAME TEST
ON EVERY HOST
Any host listed on HostList can publish a server benchmark on its profile. Buyers compare entry plans on price because nothing else is visible; a published score changes that conversation. The rules below are the whole deal: what you test, how often, what we check, and what we show. Every published number links to its raw timings.
What you get
An expanded profile
Your profile gains a benchmark section: total and per-category scores, points per dollar, the plan and price tested, and a link to the raw timings. Buyers see measured speed where competitors show a price.
Value comparisons
Published scores feed the score-per-dollar comparisons, where a cheap, fast plan beats an expensive slow one regardless of brand.
First in line for Verified
When HostList repeats the test on your plan, hosts with published runs go first. Verified runs are the ones that count towards HRI v3.
Free, and yours to run
No fee, no affiliate link, no paid placement. Ten minutes of setup and a click on three days.
Rules
- 01
Cheapest public plan
Test the lowest-priced WordPress plan a new customer can buy today, on a fresh WordPress install with the default theme and no caching, CDN or optimisation plugins. The plan name and monthly price you declare are printed on the result.
- 02
The server, not the site
The plugin runs the same fixed workload on every site: CPU, memory, disk, MySQL, object cache and a download from HostList. It never reads or times your content, so a one-page site and a thousand-page site get identical work.
- 03
3 runs on 3 different days
Nothing is published until three runs on three separate days exist. We show the median, never the best run, and accept at most one run per day.
- 04
Everything on the record
Each run stores the plugin version, PHP version, WordPress version, time of run and the organisation the submitting server belongs to. The raw timings are public in JSON on every profile.
- 05
Checks before publication
HostList confirms the plugin is installed on the submitted domain with the same token, and that the submitting server belongs to the host's network. A run that fails either check is held for review and does not count.
- 06
Self-reported until verified
Host-run results are labelled Self-reported. Verified by HostList, where we repeat the run on the same plan, is coming soon. A self-reported result we cannot reproduce is retracted and the host is told why.
- 07
HRI today, and what is coming
A self-reported benchmark does not move your HostList Ranking Index today. HRI v3 rolls out over the coming weeks with stricter scoring, and verified benchmarks become part of its Performance component. Hosts with published runs are verified first, so a benchmark now is a head start on the index, not a shortcut through it.
What the plugin measures
The plugin sends raw timings only. HostList turns them into scores from 0 to 10 against a fixed reference: hitting the reference time scores 10, four times slower scores about 4.4, ten times slower about 2.5. The total is the weighted average below.
| Stage | Workload | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | A fixed arithmetic and hashing loop | 25% |
| Memory | Array building, sorting and large string work | 10% |
| Disk | 400 files of 64 KB written, read back and deleted, plus 2,000 existence checks | 15% |
| MySQL | 1,000 inserts, 1,000 indexed reads and 100 range queries on a temporary table | 25% |
| Object cache | 3,000 sets and gets; scores zero without a persistent object cache | 10% |
| Network | A 1 MB download from hostlist.io, reported in Mbps | 15% |
Reference timings, calibration v1: CPU 1200 ms, memory 600 ms, disk 1500 ms, MySQL 3000 ms, object cache 400 ms, network 100 Mbps. Raw timings are kept for every run, so a recalibration rescores history rather than discarding it.
Run yours
- Claim your listing and open the Benchmarks tab in your dashboard. Declare the plan and get your token.
- Put a fresh WordPress install on that plan, upload the plugin and paste the token under Tools, HostList Benchmark.
- Click Run on 3 different days. The median publishes on your profile.
The plugin is open source under GPL-2.0-or-later. It creates a temporary table and a temporary uploads folder during a run and removes both. It has no tracking and never loads code from anywhere.